Friday, November 16, 2012

Wal-Mart retail strike spreads to Dallas

Dallas Wal-Mart workers on strike in October.
Josh Eidelson at The Nation has the scoop:
This morning, at 10 AM local time, Dallas Walmart store workers are headed back to the picket line. Theirs is the latest in a string of strikes that hit a California warehouse Wednesday and Seattle stores on Thursday. There’s more where that came from: On a Thursday call with reporters, union-backed Walmart worker groups said to expect a thousand strikes or demonstrations spread over nine days, culminating in an unprecedented array of “Black Friday” disruptions... 
Dallas striker Colby Harris ... told The Nation that the main purpose of today’s picketing outside his Dallas store is to send a message to the workers inside: that “you can speak up and not get punished.” What if Walmart retaliates? “We’ll just take more actions…” said Harris. “It will not be accepted or tolerated.” He said that going on strike last month heightened his confidence: “I’m not as nervous to take actions now. I know I’ve done it before…I can do it again.”
The strikes are planned by a group called OUR Wal-Mart (Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart). It's an offshoot of the UFCW, which belongs to the Change to Win labor federation along with the Teamsters and SEIU. Teamsters are urged to support striking Wal-Mart workers at rallies outside stores.

To find an action near you, go to the Corporate Action Network website here.